[BOOK REVIEW] The Life Of A Banana - PP Wong

Here is a quick review on the debut novel by fellow British Born Chinese PP Wong.



I came across this novel by pure chance on a Facebook group. After reading PP Wong's interview about the launch of her new website Banana Writers, I was rather excited by the idea of a novel from the direct perspective of a British Born Chinese individual because let's face it, where are the BBC authors? We get so many native Chinese authors being published and/or translated into different languages and in all honesty, not every single story is easy to resonate with and it doesn't help when certain stereotypes come into play, painting the Chinese community in one specific light.

That's where "The Life Of A Banana" comes in. It completely breaks away from the stories on bookshelves where Chinese women are filled with innocence or are of a feisty, dragon lady persona. This is a novel from the heart, discussing insecurities about ethnic identity. Being a "person of colour" / model minority in a Western country. The writing is primarily in first person present and might put some readers off although to be fair, Xing Li is 12 years old and we all know kids have their vivid imaginations. Xing Li's POV is emotional and PP narrates the protagonist's voice rather nicely, to the point of purposely misspelling classical composer's names. While the reader might be confused with the POV changes later on the book the writing style is easy to get by.

I managed to read this novel in less than a week, which is a bit of a record for me because it normally takes me a month to read a book. We also have to bear in mind about the POV being of a young girl who has just had a tragedy occur within the family and dealing with a new environment. Yet she manages to find some comfort and inspiration from a fellow peer who happens to be half Chinese and half Jamaican. When I was 12 years old, I had a lot to digest and too many crazy things happening to me when I began secondary school.

I've seen reviews describe Xing Li's family as above average intelligence and that a normal 12 year old would not know this much. That's just one specific characteristic. Yes some Chinese are born to be clever I'm not. Yes Chinese families do save up a lot or were born with silver spoons. Just like anyone from the East or the West. Of course there are the takeaway and Chinese restaurant family types. If I had to put a little critiquing in then I would perhaps think it would be interesting to see more characters or a further side story to show this alternative side of working in a takeaway or restaurant.

"The Life Of A Banana" is one of the few books where I have related to the character from the heart and there were chapters that had me close to tears - shall blame the bimbos who bullied Xing Li. Majority of the things our heroine encounters at home and at school - I've been there and completely understood the situations. Everything I've wanted to say but couldn't because nobody listened is all there. I hated my school years with a burning passion and the bullying was painful (and when people close to you say a specific moment was not bullying at all then that's a dent in society but let's not get into that).

For a novel, "The Life Of A Banana" is something I've always wanted to write about but couldn't have the time and courage to do. I studied a writing degree at university because I was inspired by fanfiction and wanted to write my own novel in the future to talk about my ethnic identity problems, though after my 3-4 years of writing in fanfiction land I gave up because I lost my fictional creativity, thus decided to focus on blogging and non-fiction writing instead.

Somehow "The Life Of A Banana" has inspired me to pick up writing stories again and enlightened me that people in the same community can accomplish something big. Anyone who never thought there were British Born Chinese who had their own struggles with identity, this is a novel you should definitely check out.

Other random tidbits

- One of the characters Xing Li meets in Singapore has the same name as me and after the initial shock, I came to the conclusion that female character as a more extreme version of myself.

- I found it refreshing to find a novel with a character whose family is from a country that's right next door to my family overseas. It's also a reminder to other people that not every Chinese comes from China or is from Hong Kong.

- Shils is the embodiment of many English girls who eyed me viciously in school because I was different.

- I like how Shils' full name is the abbreviation for a popular word.

- I'm certain Xing Li's grandmother would be how my late 奶奶 would act towards me if we ever met.

- A particular family secret which Xing Li discovers when she's in Singapore...okay I did not see that one coming at all.